In one type of automatic pinspotter bowling machine the pin wheel lifts the bowling pins to an orienting pan from which the pins slide onto a distributor belt which leads the pins to the respotting cups. A difficulty with this system is that a pin on the orienting pan may not make immediate contact with the distributor belt. When this happens the next pin may be pushed into the first one causing a pin jam resulting in improper placement of pins in the respotting cups. This situation requires manual correction and is an annoying inconvenience and delay to the bowlers.